RPGs Fulfill Hero Fantasies, Shooters Satiate Pilot Dreams

North American DS owners will get their first taste of Kotaro Uchikoshi’s stories when 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors comes out this year. The game follows nine individuals as they escape from a ship with bombs inside of them. Make a mistake or incorrectly solve a puzzle and… well, there’s a reason why the game is rated M. 999 is not Uchikoshi’s first escape game. He created a handful of them including Ever17, which has a familiar scenario.

I asked Uchikoshi what makes the escape scenario so interesting. He returned with a clever, thought provoking comment, especially if you think of video games as escapist entertainment.

“Just like the RPG genre depicts the inner fantasy of people wanting to become a hero and defeat evil, and SHMUPs, which fulfills dreams of becoming an elite pilot and fighting enemy ships, being trapped in a location that has been locked out from the world, and the desire of wanting to escape that situation gave birth to the escape game,” Uchikoshi mused.

Uchikoshi has more insightful answers about game design and philosophy, which you’ll see later this week when our 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors interview goes live.